The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is gonna be the sweet jazz sax of ol' Dexter Gordon all day, starting with his 1961 album Dexter Calling, and moving into such classics as Go and Live At Carnegie Hall.

 

There's a difference between background music, i.e. wallpaper music, and good music to have on at work. Dex is not wallpaper schlock jazz like some others we could name (cough Kenny G cough), he keeps your brain percolating without breaking concentration on what you're doing:

 

Madan Sheina, principal analyst at Ovum, says the breakdown of the Facebook-Twitter talks "might not be a bad thing."

 

What would have been the first major consolidation between two social networking giants "has failed to materialize, as Facebook's attempts to woo Twitter with an all-stock offer fell on deaf ears," Sheina notes, adding that "Facebook's valuation seems to have been the sticking point. But with neither company as yet able to demonstrate that it can make money on a scale that matches its number of users, the outcome might not be a bad thing."

 

Sheina says Facebook was tabling a $500 million all-stock offer for Twitter, on the face of it - sorry - a relatively high offer, "but apparently it wasn't enough for the micro-blogging site."

 

First Coffee must say he agrees with Sheina's observation that it was probably as good a price as Twitter could hope for at this time: "Could Twitter really look at itself in the mirror and justify a higher price, or even that price for that matter? After all, it is still without a revenue-generating business model. Plus its ability to send mini text messages of 140 characters or less on the Internet or mobile phones is a clever idea but hardly rocket science, and certainly doesn't come with a natural money-making model."

 

So how do you value Twitter? Valuations are typically based on the company's last transaction, as Sheina points out, which in Facebook's case "has reportedly been set at around $15 billion, thanks largely to Microsoft's $240 million stake 13 months ago for greater advertising rights." Such a valuation exceeds that of Yahoo and eBay, both of which are profitable business models.

 

Of course people are cognizant of the fact that Google has lost around two-thirds of its value, and News Corp, the parent firm of rival social networking site MySpace, is trading at a third of its 52-week high, so who's to say what's worth what these days?

 

Sheina raises another issue: "Revenue has always been an issue for Facebook and Twitter's high SMS costs related to the delivery of its messages to mobile phones in some international markets does not really address that... Twitter would certainly be a nice addition to Facebook's stable, but it isn't necessarily going to take Facebook into new revenue-generating markets."

 

Now a Facebook-LinkedIn marriage, on the other hand...

...

 

Toronto-based CRM vendor Maximizer Software has announced that its mobile CRM product is now available for Symbian OS, an operating system recently acquired by Nokia, which supports nearly 80 mobile devices, including Nokia N and E series, as well as specific Samsung, LG, and Siemens smart phones.

 

Maximizer's Mobile CRM is accessible for Symbian OS Smartphone users, through wireless Web access allowing users to access and updates corporate CRM systems for management of customers, leads, sales opportunities, service cases and online document repositories directly via the Smartphone.

 

"We believe that mobile CRM will proliferate beyond IT and business users to widespread global adoption across all industries and customer-facing job functions in small and medium-sized businesses," says William Anderson, executive vice president of technology, Maximizer Software.

 

In Anderson's view, their support of Symbian OS gives Maximizer Mobile CRM "the greatest reach in the global market." In addition to Symbian supported devices, Maximizer Mobile CRM is available for BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, iPhone and Palm smart phones.

...

 

The Manufacturing Alliance has announced the addition of a new member, Axonom, chosen for its "expertise in Microsoft Dynamics CRM" according to Alliance officials.

 

Axonom is a mid-market independent software vendor selling enterprise-level CRM and PRM products for high tech and light manufacturing companies distributing make-to-order products through multiple distribution channels.

 

The Minneapolis-based firm does have thirteen years of CRM expertise, and for the last eleven years has been named to ISM Guide's Top 15 CRM Software Award for Medium and Small Businesses. In both 2007 and 2008, CRM Magazine awarded Axonom customers with an Elite Award for implementation success.

 

"Most of our manufacturing clients manage sales through a channel and most CRM products are not designed to do this effectively," says Mark Munson, Executive Director of the Manufacturing Alliance.

 

Mike Belongie, Vice President of Sales at Axonom, says manufacturing customers "are increasingly expecting industry-specific functionality and industry expertise from their CRM vendor."

 

The vendor's Powertrak's high tech modules include customer and partner portals, call center, quote and product configuration, time and billing, and service management. All Powertrak modules are integrated with Microsoft Dynamics CRM and can be optionally extended with Microsoft SharePoint for global partner and customer interaction.

...

 

Online merchants using Go Daddy's Quick Shopping Cart tool are "bucking current economic trends," according to the Go Daddies.

 

Quick Shopping Cart creates an e-commerce Web site for companies doing business exclusively online, or brick and motor stores looking to expand their Internet presence.

 

Go Daddy's Quick Shopping Cart statistics, comparing July, August and September of this year to last, reveal an increase of more than 100 percent, in terms of revenue generated and the number of different vendors selling products. "The trend shows no sign of slowing," Go Daddy officials say.

 

"More businesses are turning to the Web as a revenue stream, especially as the economy struggles," Go Daddy officials say. They might be right, too: According to IDC, nearly half of all Internet users will make online purchases in 2009, which, yes would explain why more businesses are expanding their potential customer base on the Internet.

 

"The Internet is where the action is these days, and we don't see that changing," said Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons.

...

 

AT&T has announced expanded global reach for AT&T's Ethernet portfolio with the

immediate availability of a virtual private local area network service in 14 countries across Europe and Asia Pac.

 

AT&T's VPLS service, called OPT-E-WAN, lets businesses link multiple locations - next door, three continents over - with a flat Ethernet wide area network that can be extended globally. 

 

The service is now available in 15 countries - the United States, Germany, United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Netherlands, Sweden, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Switzerland in Europe and Hong Kong, Australia, Singapore and Japan in Asia Pacific.

 

OPT-E-WAN uses the same Ethernet interfaces and so global businesses will have the requisite flexibility to mix and match bandwidth and security among locations. "This will allow network managers to assign network resources across the virtual local area networks with a level of sophistication not possible before," claim AT&T officials.

 

Demand for Ethernet services worldwide continues to expand. This growth is obviously being driven by businesses looking for bandwidth to support their enterprise applications, including disaster recovery, storage and converged voice and video.